Back in May, Tulsa World reported that a Baptist pastor named Jackson Lahmeyer is running for U.S. Senate. To be successful, however, he’ll first have to defeat incumbent Sen. James Lankford in the 2022 Republican primary. Today, Tulsa World is reporting that Lahmeyer has the support of John Bennett, the newly elected chairman of the Oklahoma GOP.
Lankford calls Bennett’s decision to endorse a candidate “more unprecedented than rare,” which is true. Party chairs from both parties and in every state are neutral in primaries, for obvious reasons. Going against a sitting U.S. Senator is not normal, but Bennett and Lahmeyer are tied in with Donald Trump and his QAnon-sponsoring former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
In fact, Flynn was by Lahmeyer’s side in May when he made his candidacy announcement.
Those who have wondered why all of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, save one, went along with an unsubstantiated, fruitless and ultimately dangerous denial of November’s presidential election results got an answer on Tuesday.
Flanked by a cadre of former President Donald Trump loyalists that included retired Gen. Michael Flynn and local COVID-19 contrarians, Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer formally announced that he is a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by James Lankford in the 2022 Republican primary.
Lankford was the exception in the state’s delegation who didn’t challenge the Electoral College slates from Arizona and Pennsylvania, but that was a broken promise. After a mob invaded the Capitol on January 6, interrupting the counting and injuring scores of police, the Oklahoma senator had a change of heart.
According to The Oklahoman, Bennett told reporters after the June 26 rally that Lankford’s decision not to object to the results of the 2020 presidential election after the Jan. 6 insurrection was proof that the senator couldn’t keep promises made to constituents. Bennett reportedly also said being a Republican doesn’t necessarily make someone “the right pick.”
And this wasn’t his only sin. During his May launch, Lahmeyer had an itemized list, which included apologizing to black Tulsans for not understanding their sensitivities about a challenge vote and then introducing a bill to replace Columbus Day with Juneteenth.
Most of all, Lankford ultimately refused to go along with a formal objection to the November election results — and apologized to Black Tulsans for not having understood why those challenges offended them.
“From November to Jan. 6, I watched our senator flip-flop like a fish out of water. … It was absolutely embarrassing. And I saw fear all over him on Jan. 6. He caved in like an absolute coward, and that let me know he is not the man to represent our state in the fight our country is in right now.”
On Jan. 6, Lankford dropped his objection to the electoral college certification after rioters invaded the Capitol. Lankford has said his primary goal was to force an examination of voting practices because of constituent concerns.
He did not actually apologize for questioning the results in some states, only for not understanding the broader significance of those objections.
The Flynn-Lahmeyer-Bennett wing of the Oklahoma GOP is also in full-on anti-vax mode.
Lahmeyer and the people surrounding him adamantly believe that a majority of Oklahomans — or at least a majority of Oklahoma Republican primary voters — agree with him. In their view, the last presidential election was stolen despite a preponderance of evidence otherwise. The dangers of COVID-19 have been blown out of proportion. Vaccines are more dangerous than beneficial.
And Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is pulling all the strings, according to material about the “scamdemic” prominently displayed at the Jenks business where Tuesday’s press conference was held.
It’s quite possible that they’re right that a majority of Oklahoma Republican primary voters believe these things. They’re certainly doing their best to make sure they do. One might wonder why Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wants to undermine public confidence in the integrity of our elections, but then one might also wonder why he’d accept “more than $45,000” to appear on a Russian propaganda news network and lie about it.
Be that as it may, Sen. Lankford was ready to appease these folks until they showed up his place of work bent on hanging the vice-president of the United States. The point, I guess, was to prevent them from running against him in a primary.
There’s an historical record we can consult on how appeasing fascists turned out in 1930’s worked out. But if you can’t make them go away by playing nice, then you have to defeat them. That’s where Lankford is now.
Should we ally with him on the same principle that led us to ally with Stalin to fight Hitler?
That might make a surface level of sense except the the Oklahoma Republican primary voter probably won’t be impressed by our help. I think it’s up to Lankford to come forward and state clearly what this fight is all about and what’s at stake. He could start by speaking truthfully about Michael Flynn and his connections to the Russians.
The choices for him are pretty stark. He can do what so many Republicans who first expressed outrage at what happened on January 6 are doing, like Senate Candidate J.D. Vance, and simply reverse course and try to erase all recorded history of their apostasy toward Trump; all while doing everything possible to make amends by praising The Dear Leader. Or he can go down in flames against his Trumper challenger, who has all the support and backing of the current institutional GOP in his state, which has all the power and all the money to ram through whoever they wish to be in that seat. There is no way that you win in Oklahoma as someone operating outside the Trump orbit.
As far as allying with him? I am assuming that question is nothing more than a rhetorical exercise on your part. There is no alliance to be made.
It would seem the odds are pretty high that Lankford is toast. It’s Oklahoma, after all. Even a whiff of moderation is a political death sentence.
George Bush pretty much summed up, 20 years ago, where Lankford finds himself with his Party.
‘You Are Either With Us, Or With the Terrorists‘
It’s hard to see how aid from East Coast liberals (or even Oklahoma liberals) would help Lankford in a Republican primary. It’s more likely to hurt his chances, isn’t it?
Some fights centrists and non-fascist conservatives have to win on their own. This looks like one of them.
Ultimately, if the Republican party is going to be something other than a 5th Column in American politics, it will happen because they are soundly defeated. There’s nothing we can do to help by aligning with Lankford. However, it will take people like Lankford standing up against what’s happened to his party to turn the tide. In other words, we need more Lincoln projects that help take them down, albeit preferably with strong enough leadership to keep flies zipped and otherwise restrain corrupting temptations, that would be helpful.
Senator Langford was not some sleazy,scandal ridden con man interested only in money and power before he became an Oklahoma senator.
He will not be when he leaves office.
As Nancy Pelosi says, be one of the politicians who can do other things .
Senator Langford is one of those people.
As an Oklahoman, I so hope he speaks some truth to power. I do not see how we can help him in the Republican primary, but we can give him platforms for speaking his truths.
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Lankford was not the party favorite when he won the Republican primary in 2016.